Negotiations between customs authorities and representatives of the mobile-phone market have produced a preliminary agreement on substantial cuts in phone customs charges, informed sources told Madar.
The sources put the reduced duty at up to around 4% of a phone's price. Charges for some types of phones were as low as 100 old ouguiyas, while the highest reached about 20,000 old ouguiyas, an initial sign of progress in talks that had been under way for several days between customs and phone traders' representatives.
They stressed that the customs-clearance platform remained in place, but said the charges had become affordable.
Describing the outcome as satisfactory and promising, the sources told Madar that the customs charge for an iPhone 17 had fallen to about 20,000 old ouguiyas from 134,000 old ouguiyas.
They added that the charge for some Samsung phone models had fallen to 2,000 old ouguiyas from 60,000 old ouguiyas.
